After the 19th Avenue off ramp from North bound Doyle drive was closed, a motorcycle officer with the United States Park Police waits to control redirected traffic headed towards 19th Avenue on January 11, 2010 in San Francisco, Calif.

Drivers heading north on Doyle Drive on Monday, hoping to take their usual shortcut - the Park Presidio off-ramp - to zip into the western reaches of San Francisco were met with a wall of orange-and-white striped barricades, a row of cones and a "Road closed" sign.

Despite the ramp closure - which will last for three years - traffic troubles never developed on Doyle Drive, the Golden Gate Bridge or in the adjacent tangle of narrow roads around the bridge administration building and the Presidio, officials said.

The most confusion was among bike-riding tourists trying to find their way to the landmark span.

"The closures have gone as planned," said Molly Graham, a Caltrans spokeswoman. "Traffic control officers are out there, but there's been no traffic to control."

Caltrans officials closed the ramp, a popular shortcut between the Marina and Richmond districts, late Sunday night. At the same time, they barricaded the ramp from southbound Doyle Drive to southbound Presidio Parkway overnight to give Caltrans crews time to re-stripe the interchange to accommodate two lanes of traffic instead of just one. The work was completed in time to reopen the ramp by 5 a.m. for the start of the morning commute.

The closures are part of the construction of the Presidio Parkway project, a $1 billion reconstruction of Doyle Drive, the 73-year-old approach to the Golden Gate Bridge that highway officials consider unsafe. Construction started in the fall by removing trees along the route and is expected to continue until 2013.

Transportation officials did not anticipate any major traffic backups because of the closure, but U.S. Park Police, the California Highway Patrol and bridge police stationed officers near the bridge viewing area to prevent confused drivers from backing up traffic on Doyle Drive as they did during some weekend ramp closures for the tree removals.

"Things are going better than expected," said Sgt. Mike Falzone of the U.S. Park Police, which patrols the Presidio. "We don't have half as much traffic coming through as we did for those two weekend (ramp) closures in October and November."

No problems were reported at the Golden Gate Bridge either, said Mary Currie, bridge district spokeswoman.